The colt hadn't yet made it to the string of saddle horses at the stables on Eight Mile. It was too young. Not broke to ride. And then the stable sold out and the nameless horse followed its barn mates to the sale.

Local horseman Bill Bolander picked the little blaze-faced gelding out of a hundred that day. It had a good eye. Good head. Good stance.

Bolander called it Smith.

"I got him started," he said, which meant he got the horse used to people and saddles, bits and ropes. Let it grow into itself, take a look at the world and see what was out there.

"I started heelin' on him and he was comin' along good." Bolander knew local team roper Dale Woodard was looking for a horse, so he stopped by one day just after Woodard pulled in from a long run of rodeos.

Fact was, Woodard had looked in three states for a horse, but not just any horse. The right horse. One that would get him up on the south end of a steer in the team roping event so he could catch two heels, take a quick dally and bring home the money.

Woodard agreed to look at the little gelding. "He was a green-broke 4-year-old but he was gentle, the right size, looked like he could run and was smooth riding."

Still, you never know about a new horse, Woodard said. Sometimes it's a gamble.

What he did know was Bolander's keen eye for horse flesh, so Woodard gave him a try. "I brought him home to just ride him for three or four days and I liked him."

That was eight years ago.

With a new owner comes a new name and Woodard tossed around "Big Mac."

"I've waited longer for hamburgers at McDonald's than I did for this horse," he said, but he finally settled on the name Razor because "when I ride him, I rope sharp."

Sharp enough to win the average at the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association Finals in Las Vegas this year, last year and the year prior.

Evidently, a few other cowboys agreed. Over the years, plenty of team ropers have watched Woodard and Razor at ropings across the country. Some have even ridden the horse themselves and made a good showing. At this year's Finals, those ropers decided to name Razor the Heel Horse of the Year.

Woodard wasn't on hand for the announcement and got a call from his roping partner while driving home through Utah.

"It was an emotional moment for me," Woodard said. "It was just my wife, Karla, and me in the cab, but I couldn't talk for about a half an hour."

Woodard said he'd always wondered what it would be like to ride a horse of the year. He just didn't know he'd been doing that very thing.

"It took somebody else telling me he was a really good horse before I realized he was a really good horse."

Razor is quiet in the box, Woodard said. The horse will stand wherever his rider needs him to be: toward the front, to one side, or all the way in the back. He's not fidgety waiting for the split second between the steer charging out, the header throwing his loop and the heeler coming in for two heels. Razor's got his eye on what's going on and the octane to get him there.

"He gives you a good shot," Woodard said.

Other rodeo competitors from Fremont County also ride horses they bought from Bolander, he added, including Cody Adams, Lori Shepard and Chad Draper.

"I just feel blessed to have had a horse like this come along," Woodard said, "and that I didn't mess him up."

Woodard hunts on Razor and works cattle with him just to break up the monotony of doing the same thing all the time. Gives the horse something else to think about.

"You train them to show them what it is you want them to do," Woodard said. Some of them get it, and those that do like their job.

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